A man picked through the remains of an apartment building in Panama City, Fla., where Hurricane Michael left widespread destruction.
Photo:
brendan smialowski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

PANAMA CITY, Fla.—Ashlee and B. Cody Shields bought a house in June and were transforming it into the dream home where one day, they hoped, they would raise children. The remodeling was about half complete when Hurricane Michael roared ashore.

They rode out the storm with Mr. Shields’s parents, then emerged into the debris-strewn streets and threaded their way through a tangle of fallen trees to reach their property. It had blown apart.

The roof was gone, the windows shattered and insulation lay everywhere. All that remained was a slab of concrete and some brick siding.

Ms. Shields, her husband, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend hugged and wept. “We put so much time and effort into it,” said Ms. Shields, 31 years old. “I feel traumatized by the whole thing.”

Ashlee and B. Cody Shields in front of their house.
Photo:
Desiree Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

Many of their neighbors’ homes also were ravaged. There were collapsed roofs and caved-in walls. Trees fell onto houses and cars. Sheds burst apart.

All across Panama City, the destruction was overwhelming. A large church was missing its facade. Warehouses crumpled like tinfoil. Some homes were sliced open, displaying their insides like doll houses. A pet store’s roof collapsed. A clothing store lost its windows, leaving sodden racks of merchandise.

“It looks apocalyptic,” said Mr. Shields, who was born and raised in Panama City but no longer recognizes much of it.

Hurricane Michael—one of the most powerful storms to ever strike the U.S.—erased entire neighborhoods and leveled communities. It destroyed most of Mexico Beach, a laid-back Gulf Coast town of about 1,000. An official there called it “a death”; another resident said she can’t stop crying because “you just realize it’s all gone”

People across six states—Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia—felt the effects. The storm killed at least 14 people, and the death toll is expected to rise. It also damaged the power grid and, in Florida, closed four hospitals and 11 nursing homes. On Thursday night, almost 2,900 people stayed in as many as 37 Red Cross and community evacuation centers across Florida, Georgia and Alabama. More than one million people were without power.

The simple routines of daily life—placing a phone call, finding gas, buying groceries—have become a struggle.

Michael ranked as the strongest storm to hit the Panhandle since at least 1851, when record-keeping began, according to the National Hurricane Center.